Straight North

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Legacy Recovery Center. We’re an in-patient behavioral health facility.

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We needed a website and SEO services for our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Straight North created our WordPress website from scratch. We won’t begin our SEO efforts until next year, but we’ll continue with their services to do our SEO. They’ll work on keyword research and backlinks.

What is the team composition?

We had 5–6 teammates involved with the website development. However, we primarily worked with Natalie (Email Marketing Specialist); she was the team lead.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

We searched online for multiple companies that provided the services we needed. We looked at the competitors’ performance and found that Straight North performed the best.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $13,500 on the website. We haven’t paid for SEO because we haven’t begun, but we signed a year-long contract at $7,500 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in January 2022. We scheduled to finish the website in May, but our physical property burned down, so we put a hold on the project. In total, it took about six months, but they delivered the website in August 2022.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The website went live recently, and Straight North gave us what we wanted. We told them our vision, and they created all that and made any edits we wanted. Overall, we were pleased with the website's high quality.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

They were professional, timely, responsive, and easy to work with. We communicated through email and Zoom meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Initially, they stood out for their analytics and performance. The website and SEO they’d done for the competitor were performing very high, so we reached out to them. Then, their dedication, communication, and professionalism were outstanding. They didn’t try to sell us something they couldn’t deliver; they were straightforward and transparent, so we felt they were trustworthy. All in all, Straight North gained our trust, and they demonstrated their success with their work for other companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, I can’t think of anything; we were pleased with all our interactions, and their quality of work was excellent.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just be direct and communicate effectively about what you’re looking for. If you don’t tell them exactly what you want, they can’t be held accountable for not delivering it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of managed care, PHO, and wellness for UnityPoint Health and Optimum Health Solutions in Peoria, Illinois. Optimum Health Solutions is a particular business unit we own. It’s a corporate worksite wellness company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We’d never compiled a website for marketing purposes for the Optimum Health Solutions unit.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We solicited help from Straight North to put together a website. After filling out our statement of work, we agreed on the services we’d purchase and had a kick-off meeting with them. We described our company and went into great detail about what we do and the services we provide. Then, they started drafting the content for our website.

They built the website from scratch, doing design and development work. We developed the website to drive business when people search for our various service lines. We worked closely with Straight North to describe those service lines and what they do, and they wrote the content for us. We spent some time reviewing the content and ensuring it fulfilled our message and what we were trying to get across to potential customers.

Also, we later decided we wanted to have them develop a new logo, which wasn’t in the original scope. We had a logo when they showed us the website’s first draft; we thought the site looked great, but the logo looked awful. We went back to the team and asked them if their graphic designers could give us some options. We had the colors we’d use, but we gave them free rein to come up with alternatives. They developed four logos; we picked one and moved forward from there.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Natalie (Project Manager) and Matthew (Vice President, Sales), who were our main contacts. They worked with people internally on their team.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

I knew Matthew. We started discussing their services and if they could assist us with website design. Then, they put together a package of material related to their services, including a financial proposal. We went through the process locally with our CFO and gained approval for the project.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent about $22,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in April 2019 and launched in July 2022. Currently, they’re doing maintenance and training on adjustments. Additionally, we hope to engage them for business development services in the future.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We were pleased with everything they did for us. The quality of their work was exceptional, and the team was highly professional and timely in their communication. Since we have complicated processes, we’d had trouble before developing content that wasn’t too complicated for the end user. However, their writers did an excellent job. We sent them a ton of information, and they turned it into nice, concise summaries — the team did a fantastic job minimizing what we do into bullet points to get the point about our service delivery across

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

We stayed entirely on budget; we only gave additional expenses when we changed or added something. For example, there was an additional cost when we asked them to do our logo and change some things after they completed the project scope. However, we talked about it ahead of time and agreed on a fee structure to move forward. From that standpoint, there weren’t any surprises. Also, they always met expectations and the deadlines we laid out.

We used Google Meet, phone, and email to document the changes we wanted. The situation dictated how we communicated, whether we had a meeting, a phone call, or sent emails back and forth.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They communicated exceptionally well. They brought new ideas and were very thought-provoking. Straight North challenged us to think about our business and how we wanted to promote ourselves. We also changed our minds a few times regarding what we wanted on the website and what we wanted to add, and they were flexible with us.

In addition, they were reasonably priced for all the work they did and were extremely patient. We kicked off our engagement, and since a hospital system owns us, we had to pause the project for over a year and a half because we were all working in the hospital’s clinical settings to help with the pandemic. Nonetheless, they continued to follow up, and when the pandemic hit the second time, we returned to the hospital again. We finally reached the point where we could engage again on the project, and they were very patient with our team to complete this.

Overall, Straight North treated us with the same importance and respect as a large client, although we were a small service line. Sometimes it’s hard to get organizations to help us with certain services because we’re not as important in the grand scheme of things. However, they treated us as their only customer, which we greatly appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

On the contrary, we really appreciated their patience. They didn’t give up on us despite the long delays we had. They followed up and made sure we could launch when we were ready to go.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing manager at Current Midwest. We are based in Michigan City, IN, and supply industrial electrical products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We are in a niche market and offer unique products to a specific client base. We’ve been driving inbound sales efforts recently because our outbound sales strategies were ineffective. We wanted to increase our website traffic through marketing to drive inbound leads. Our goal was to optimize the search and make it easier for potential customers to find our products.

What was the scope of their involvement?

During the proposal stage, Straight North helped us with keyword research and came to us with 135 keywords. They also conducted a competitor analysis of the top ten results for nine of our relevant keywords.

Once we moved forward with the partnership, they performed a content gap analysis. We presented our website and shared information regarding our target clientele. We also went over our most important product lines. They analyzed three of our landing pages, shared feedback, and updated them. They worked with us to build organic SEO campaigns. They added and revised our website content and added backlinks. We plan to extend our engagement for another six months and they will continue to help us with SEO. 

What is the team composition?

I have worked with two people; Michelle is our account manager and the main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

I had worked with Straight North on PPC at my former company, and when we were researching partners for this SEO project, they kept showing up at the top of the search results. 

We sent out an RFP and narrowed it down to three partners during the proposal stage, and Straight North stood out. Their proposal was very robust, and they made it feel as though we were already working with them. We thought they would be the best partner for optimizing organic searches and moved forward. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested roughly $25,000 in the partnership.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Straight North in July 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Since working with Straight North, we’ve seen a 70% increase in website traffic. Even better, we’ve seen a 233% increase in conversions. We define conversions by the number of users who come to our website and click the call button or send in an interest form. We’re having one of our best years so far, so we see the impact in dollars, not just traffic.

The landing pages that we provided Straight North with at the beginning of the project have also seen significant traffic increases. These pages were basically untouched before we started working with Straight North, and they’ve seen increases by 187%, 150%, and 433%, respectively. We’re just seeing so much more overall traffic, and I know our brand recognition is stronger because more people seem to know our name. 

The most exciting thing about our partnership has been the quality of the leads coming in. I believe the quality of leads has improved due to the content that Straight North added. Not only do we see more traffic to our website, but the people reaching out are more qualified, farther along in the sales cycle, and ready to buy. 

We were initially focused on increasing our number of prospects, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that the average spend from our current clients has increased. The increased spending is due to them finding our other product lines more easily. Customers who have been with us for decades are coming back and purchasing different types of products that they didn’t know we offered.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

Michelle is an exceptional project manager, and I have enjoyed working with her. She keeps the project on track, works with her team behind the scenes, and then communicates progress with me directly. It’s been a great relationship, and I look forward to continuing to work with Straight North. 

During the proposal stage, they gave us a six-month scope of work, and then we extended it for another six months. I went back through the original scope, and they exceeded expectations for what they promised. They did an excellent job providing me with updates. We used a portal to manage the project, which granted us visibility into task progress and status to completion. 

The whole process has been straightforward. They have made it easy for us to see progress and find areas for improvement. They are very motivated to deliver what they promise. 

I was very diligent about going through the project plan and ensuring we got everything we paid for, and we did. We have monthly Zoom calls and use email to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been in the business for a long time, and I can’t say enough good things about Straight North; they are the best. The team is wonderful, and I’m impressed with how invested they’ve been from the beginning. They always ensure we are satisfied with their results and are getting our money’s worth.

They are highly respected in their industry and even by their competitors. When we decided to move forward with Straight North, the other vendors who submitted proposals acknowledged their aptitude with SEO and told us we would be very happy with our decision. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing Straight North could improve on. I’ve been delighted with the partnership; I wouldn’t change anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise ensuring your content is ready because Straight North is a fast-moving team. They always stick to the timeline, and the scope of work they outline is the work they’re going to do, so try to be organized.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive VP of a national recycling company. Our business handles recycled paper, plastics, and metals. We provided services throughout the US, operating our own network of plants in addition to brokering recycled products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?
 
We were looking for a vendor that could rebuild our website, which hadn’t been updated since 2011.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We tasked Straight North with creating a brand new website that would allow us to grow as a business. Our main goal was to obtain new customers, so the platform needed to be mobile-friendly. 

As for the content, we wanted to highlight who we’ve become as a company by integrating more interactive graphics. They also set up the on-site SEO for our target keywords and developed off-page SEO strategies. But, we haven’t gone live with those yet because we wanted to see how the first two months after launch would go.

What is the team composition?

We interacted with 3–4 people in total. There was the initial salesperson who pitched Straight North’s services. From there, we were assigned a project manager and a writer, who became our main contacts across the process.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

We were looking for firms in the Chicago area, and one of my personal contacts happened to mention Straight North. After interviewing a few companies, we felt the most comfortable with them. They truly understood what we were trying to accomplish, and, personality-wise, we meshed very well with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The bulk of their redesign work lasted from January–July 2019. The goal, now, is to implement their SEO strategies over the next few months.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We don’t have any feedback yet because we’re less than two weeks into going live. However, in that short timeframe, we’ve definitely received leads more consistently than before. They did a fantastic job ensuring the site is easy to follow. It now more accurately represents who we are and helps portray our message quickly.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was easy to deal with. We had face-to-face meetings, and they were timely in their responses and willing to listen to our comments and questions. We used web conferencing tools to visualize what had been done. They did a very nice job of explaining the rationale behind doing one option instead of another.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated how they worked with us as we tried to make something specific to our company. They acted like a partner that was willing to listen to what we truly wanted instead of pushing their own agenda.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we were very pleased.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should voice whatever questions they may have. If things are going a certain way, just ask for an explanation—there’s usually a good reason why.

This review was updated by the client on January 14, 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Since the website’s launched in Early August 2019, we’ve seen a nice uptick in the number of visits to our site as well as the number of requests from potential customers and suppliers. We’re also getting positive comments on the look of our site. It’s professional, easy to follow, and impressive overall.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What’s impressed us the most is their timeliness when responding to our concerns. They’ll sit down and have a conversation with us to explain why something was done a certain way. And, as we all agree, they’re then able to assist us with making any changes that we might not have realized during the first iteration.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
 
Make sure you ask questions so that you understand their rationale. At times, you might not see why something needed to be done a certain way—maybe certain pages were linked together or some other detail. Whatever the reason, don’t be afraid to ask any questions you may have.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Chicago Metro Home Inspection provides inspections in the Chicagoland area. When someone purchases a home, if they’re not familiar with the mechanics or the way a home operates, I come in and inspect it for them and make sure they understand exactly what they’re buying. I’m the founder.

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

I ultimately wanted to be on page one of Google search results so that my customers can find me instead of my competition.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially had a Weebly website that they worked on, but it didn’t perform well. We transferred it over to Straight North’s platform using their proprietary CMS. They largely recreated the website itself on that platform. They build out my website on a monthly basis and add content and links to it.

What is the team dynamic?

I interact with one person and I think they are doing all of the work.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

I found them through a friend of mine who is a graphic designer for them.

How much have you invested with them?

I've spent $17,000–$18,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January and the work is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We haven’t reached the ultimate goal of getting on page one, but we’re moving forward. I have seen growth in traffic to our website.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m happy with it. They are very open with me. We communicate through email and phone calls. I can log in to their website and see what they’ve accomplished each month.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The content, usability, and design of the website is impressive and I’m happy with it. My business has more credibility now as a result.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We worked on the Weebly website for 5–6 months without seeing the growth that they assured me of. They were confident that they would meet or exceed my expectations by then, but it didn’t happen. They suggested that this was due to the way Weebly’s websites are structured, so Google didn’t recognize our SEO efforts. They recommended I move to a Straight North website, and we transferred over the next month or so. My satisfaction has improved, but my ranking isn’t moving at the rate that we discussed in December of last year.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a marketing manager at LiquiTech. We provide water solutions for healthcare facilities, hotels, and other industries to help eradicate waterborne pathogens.

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We hired Straight North to optimize our online branding.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at Straight North is looking at our online presence by optimizing our keywords and backlinking. Our keywords are competitive and harder to rank for, so their team is focusing on that. With the backlinking, they’ve produced some content for us. Their team also redesigned our website.

We also signed up to use their Google Ads management services. They’re going to optimize and clean our Google Ads account, looking into different ads and what works.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Greg (Digital Account Manager, Straight North). I’ve also interacted with Matt (Director of Web Services, Straight North), and I know they have teams behind them.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

When I started here, the COO mentioned that Straight North had done consultation work in the past, and they suggested I reach out to them.

After receiving that referral about Straight North, their team did a presentation where we saw how knowledgeable they were in SEO. We didn’t have to look at other vendors.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested between $25,000–$50,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Straight North started in March 2019.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Due to Straight North’s work, there’s been an increase in qualified leads. I’ve received a lot of feedback from our sales group, and I’m excited to see what work Straight North will do with our Google Ads account.

In December, our redesigned website launched. Next month, I’m going to see how it’s doing compared to our older sites. When I have looked at Google Analytics, I’ve seen positive results with a lower bounce rate and an increase in time on page.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

A majority of my communication is through email with Greg. There is also a platform that I can log into that shows all of our leads and traffic. We also have biweekly calls.

The communication between us has been great. Whenever I need something, Greg is on top of it. He’s always ready to help and answer my questions. He strives to help me understand everything that’s going on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their professionalism is noteworthy. Along with being skilled in their field, their communication style is also impressive. The team at Straight North does the work they say they’re going to do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing that I can think of right now. My experience with them has been good.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients need to put in the right effort. If you think you’re going to hire an agency to do all of the work and let it be, it’s really a partnership. The effort on your side needs to be put in as much as their side. I believe that’s what made our partnership successful through transparent communication and putting in the effort. Customers need to put in their weight and not rely only on Straight North.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Foundation Doctor is a foundation repair company based in Charlotte, NC. My brother and I started the company about a year ago, and work together as joint business partners.

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

About six months ago we decided we needed better marketing. We had a website that a friend had designed, but we wanted a more professional site and help improving our SEO [Search Engine Optimization].

What was the scope of their involvement?

They rebuilt our website and set up better SEO. We met to discuss our ideas, asked some follow-up questions, and then took things from there. Our original site was on Wordpress, but Straight North was using their own proprietary CMS [Content Management System].

They’re helping us with content for some of the services we’re focusing on. They’re pitching us to different websites to add us to their backlinks, and are actively working to add us to listing sites and directories to improve our web presence.

What is the team dynamic?

Nathalie [Project Manager, Straight North] was the contact for the website build, and Courtney [Account Manager, Straight North] oversaw the SEO for us.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

We spoke to 8–10 companies about the project. I was educating myself on SEO practices, and did a Google search for SEO companies. Straight North appeared as the number one option organically, so I reached out to them. They were the most knowledgeable company we spoke with.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $4,000 so far, which includes $2,000 for the site build, and $1,000 a month for tracking and maintenance. They’re a little pricier than some of the companies we looked at, but we felt they were our best choice.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2017. They’ve finished our site, and we have a monthly maintenance contract with them now.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

It’s a great site, and everyone tells us how professional it looks. We’re really pleased with the feedback.

They installed a tracker, which we started using in September. It may be a few months before we have a clearer picture of the impact. For just the month of September, we had 8 organic leads and 30–40 clicks on the site. We also have a dynamic phone number listed, so when a user calls from our site, it goes to a separate line.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

Nathalie and Courtney were both great. They were quick to respond and keep us updated, and always got back to us with no issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re most excited by the design of the website. When we built our first site, we had no idea how valuable it could be. The website they designed is mobile-friendly and looks good on a desktop. The tracking they put in place helps us decide how to spend money on advertisements and SEO in the future.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for Graphic House, Inc., a premier sign manufacturer based in Wausau, Wisconsin with offices throughout the Midwest.

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

We wanted to improve our website design and increase traffic, with a specific focus on lowering our bounce rate.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used their in-house proprietary CMS to redesign our website, incorporating infographics, and the intuitive layout allows us to maintain the site and make changes as needed. They found keywords accurate to our industry and used them to optimize our web content. They also write blog posts, with any copy sent to us for final approval.

Our package includes monthly SEO services in order to improve and maintain our search rank.

What is the team dynamic?

My initial point of contact was their vice president of sales. Now that the deal is finalized, I work with our project manager and design team.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

I considered several SEO companies, but I'd worked with Straight North in the past through my work with previous company. They were willing to work with us on pricing and I knew they were reliable based on my past experience.

They also have offices in the Midwest, making it easy to conduct occasional face-to-face meetings.

How much have you invested with them?

Our contract is $48,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2017 and our relationship is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our previous site’s bounce rate was roughly 60%. After working with Straight North these last nine months, that rate has gone down to 35%–40%, which is the industry standard.

Three-quarters of our site visits are from new users and they’re consistently staying on the page for 2–4 minutes.

These analytics prove to us that their work is producing results.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager calls every two weeks to provide a breakdown of our site analytics. We’re consistently updated, and I can contact them via email or phone if I have any questions, receiving a response within 48 hours.

They make an effort to keep in touch with their clients, as their VP of sales checks in occasionally to ask if we have any concerns.

Overall, working with them has been great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a strong worth ethic and are very straightforward. We’ve had issues with previous companies relying on bots to artificially boost our web traffic, but Straight North understands that the ultimate goal is to convert traffic into actual sales.

They also took the time to understand our industry, taking a tour of our manufacturing facilities to get a firm grasp on who we are and what we do. They're an SEO company that truly cares about their clients.

They consistently meet the quarterly and annual goals that we set.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their CMS could use minor improvements. It’s great for people who want a basic, easy-to-use system, but lacks flexibility for more advanced users. Of course, this simplicity gives their CMS a wider appeal.

Advice for potential customers?

Having worked with them through two different companies, I’ve had nothing but positive experiences. Straight North will hit their goals for a good price, so they're worth a try.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a nationwide legal services company. In my role, I work with our outsourced SEO agencies to make sure that they’re getting our leads up and promoting our Google rankings.

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?

When I joined my position, we didn’t have any digital marketing strategies in place to boost our Google visibility let alone any analytics. We were also buying firms across the US, so we needed a way to promote all of our locations. Straight North came onboard to establish our SEO/PPC efforts, track our marketing data, and improve our lead generation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

During our preliminary meetings, we discussed our needs to give them a better sense of the situation. Straight North then outlined an SEO plan, showing us the trending keywords and how they related to our field. We refined that list to make sure that those keywords reflected our services and added new terms to target.

They also created a strategy to get our directory listings published, support our PPC campaigns, and improve our web content. Because content is king with Google rankings, it was imperative that we had strong pieces to bulk up our site. Their team wrote several articles, ensuring that the pieces were appropriate and included the right keywords.

To track our marketing efforts and cultivate qualified leads, they set up our Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts along with their own reporting tools. One tool allows them to record the first 30 seconds of a call to determine whether or not it was from a potential lead.

Currently, they continue to drive our digital marketing efforts, delivering a separate monthly report for our SEO and PPC campaigns. This allows us to compare our month-to-month results and better adjust our strategies. Additionally, as our organization buys up more firms, they’re proactive in getting the new firms situated on the main site, Google Maps, and searches.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two account managers so far, including our current point of contact.

How did you come to work with Straight North?

A colleague recommended Straight North to me. After looking at multiple agencies, I decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $2,500 a month with another $1,000 dedicated to ad fees.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work started in October 2016 and is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Everything is on an upward trend. In the last two years, we’ve seen a big increase in organic traffic. Stronger content and targeted keywords have spiked our Google visibility, and our lead quality has also improved. A few months ago, we reached a new high of 81 leads.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re quick to get back to my inquiries, and the turnaround time on projects is pretty good. If we need to add something to the website, they complete the task within a fair timeline. As for communication, we email a few times a week and hold monthly calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their account manager is exceptionally responsive and communicates well. She updates us on production status and passes on messages on our behalf. If she doesn’t know something, she checks with the relevant resource and gets back to us. It’s an open and transparent process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some website changes that could've been completed faster, but that might be unfair to say since I don’t know how complex it is on the development side.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re building a web page or implementing a change to the site, make sure that Straight North understands exactly what you want. That way, you won’t have to redo work due to an initial misunderstanding. Maintaining open lines of communication is also important to keep everyone on the same page.

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the head of marketing for an analytics company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Straight North?
Our team wanted to improve our organic search results. We brought them on for SEO services.
 

What was the scope of their involvement?
We entered into a six-month contract of SEO support. Our account manager helped optimize our website with keywords, handled link building, and wrote some content for us. They also discussed and executed our project plan on a month-to-month basis. Their team provided recommendations on how to update our landing pages with those keywords as well as wrote keyword-rich blogs for us. In addition to the research, they monitored results and handled backend SEO work. We utilized their custom platform as a centralized place for our different results.

What is the team composition?
I worked with an account manager who was replaced in the middle of the engagement with another account manager because it wasn’t working well. We also worked with the director of client success at times.

How did you come to work with Straight North?
I found them on Clutch. We went with them because the salesperson was very convincing in relaying that Straight North would be guiding us and doing a lot of the work. The fact that they had content writers was very appealing. We have a small marketing department and not a lot of bandwidth.

How much have you invested with them?
We invested $2,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?
Our engagement was from September 2020–April 2021.
 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 
There was a moderate increase in organic search volume over time. We had just launched a site and started at ground zero. There was some improvement, but I’m not sure if it can be differentiated from the site or in response to Straight North’s work.

How did Straight North perform from a project management standpoint?
In terms of an account management perspective, it was pretty unorganized and difficult to follow. Our first account manager wasn’t very proactive. I had to be the one to initiate a project plan and ask for a weekly meeting; it wasn’t a turnkey that was set in place from the start. I was under the expectation that the partnership would be more educational and Straight North would guide our company more through the process.

We had never done SEO for our company before. I had to deliberately ask them to be clearer and provide more context around what they were doing. Once I asked that they were really receptive and put me in the right direction; there was more of that educational tone. It took some time to make sure our relationship was fine-tuned and running in an efficient way. I met with our account manager every other week. We used email and Zoom to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?
Their sales team was great at the beginning. Also, their reporting tool is interesting. It was nice to have a centralized place to keep track of all the project work and results.

Are there any areas they could improve?
I was a little underwhelmed and not impressed with their ability to write content. They’d incorporate keywords into our site and blogs. However, they didn’t do so in a way that was aligned with our branding. I had to rework almost every piece of content that they sent to us. That made it more difficult.

I thought the content writing piece would streamline my work quite a bit but, in the end, it didn’t. I had to go back and do a lot of it myself.  A few pieces of content they put together weren’t totally focused on the topic at hand so they had to redo it. The timing of the content came as their writers wrote it which was often a few weeks after the deadline or project calendar. 

My recommendation to them is to better align with the client's content updates so the content can better align with the brand in addition to just adding keywords to the site. It’d also be beneficial if they were more transparent and upfront about how their process and different deadlines work.

Additionally, when we changed account managers, they didn’t inform us that it would be happening. I asked why it was happening and they expressed that we’d be better suited for the new account manager. That whole transition was done in a politically correct way versus a transparent way. It was a bit odd. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
We didn’t have the best experience working with them. Perhaps, it can be based on the project manager that you’re with. Make sure you’re straightforward about what your SEO learning curve is upfront to ensure you’re placed with the right account manager. Also, be prepared to make edits and work iteratively if you’re looking for them to recreate all the content on your website. The perfect product won’t be delivered on the first try.